Posted on 08/03/2007 7:18:43 AM PDT by Turret Gunner A20
The media waited less than 17 hours after the tragic bridge collapse before pointing fingers. At least one U.S. Senator, Patty Murray, seemed to blame Bush when she said yesterday that the Bush Administration has not supported Democrat efforts to increase spending on critical infrastructure. One of the problems here is that in so many instances a Democrat demand for infrastructure spending is merely a thinly disguised attempt to funnel money to construction unions as thanks for electoral and financial support. Nick Coleman at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune says that this collapse never would have happened if it wasn't for Governor Tim Pawlenty (a Republican) and his refusal to raise taxes.
He writes:
"For half a dozen years, the motto of state government and particularly that of Gov. Tim Pawlenty has been No New Taxes. It's been popular with a lot of voters and it has mostly prevailed. So much so that Pawlenty vetoed a 5-cent gas tax increase - the first in 20 years - last spring and millions were lost that might have gone to road repair. And yes, it would have fallen even if the gas tax had gone through, because we are years behind a dangerous curve when it comes to the replacement of infrastructure that everyone but wingnuts in coonskin caps agree is one of the basic duties of government."
What Mr. Coleman fails to point out is that there was no need for a tax increase. None. Because at the time when Governor Pawlenty vetoed this 5-cent gas tax increase, the state of Minnesota already had a $2.1 billion budget surplus. This surplus came from over-taxation.
Over-taxation in America? Imagine that!
And around the same time that the Governor vetoed the tax, the state legislature passed an amendment to spend all, rather than half, of the motor vehicle sales tax revenue on transportation. This added $60 million a year to road, bridge and transit spending. And that is expected to more than double in five years.
Coleman wants us to believe that more taxes would have saved these people, and it is all the Governor's fault for refusing to increase those taxes. The fact is that the problem wasn't low taxes, the problem was fiscal irresponsibility.
Let's take a look at Citizens for Government Waste's "The Pig Booklet" for the state of Minnesota
http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:3fMX62MHhJsJ:www.taxpayersleague.org/pdf/2006PigletBook.pdf+Minnesota+spending+transportation+infrastructure+2006&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us
for the year 2006. Take a look at all of the "pork" projects. I'll give you a taste of a few:
taxpayers on the hook for $972 million in unfunded liabilities
A new $776 million Twins Stadium to be paid for with a Hennepin County sales tax increase -- (approved by state legislators with no voter referendum)
$97.5 million for the Northstar Commuter Rail line
$34 million in subsidies to ethanol producers that have seen a 300 percent increase in profits in the last year
$30 million for bear exhibits at the Minnesota and Como Zoos
$12 million to renovate the Shubert Theater in downtown Minneapolis
$1 million for a replica Vikings ship in Moorhead
$500,000 for a skating rink in Roseville
$310,000 for a Shakespeare festival in Winona $129,000 for state art grants for North Dakota museums and theaters
And the list goes on and on, folks. This was all tax money spent in Minnesota while that bridge remained un-repaired. Now we're told that the problem is that taxes weren't high enough.
Don’t you know that disasters only happen when Republicans are in power?
patty murray...little pipsqueak with big mouth with nothing to say. I’m amazed at how many things President Bush is capable of. Hurricanes, Bridge collapes...he’s quit the mighty mouse. murray should be ashamed. She and her ilk are so void of any kind of idea, solution, plan to ANYTHING that all they can do is wait for a tragedy so they can blame it on the President. They are the party of doom!
patty murray...little pipsqueak with big mouth with nothing to say. I’m amazed at how many things President Bush is capable of. Hurricanes, Bridge collapes...he’s quit the mighty mouse. murray should be ashamed. She and her ilk are so void of any kind of idea, solution, plan to ANYTHING that all they can do is wait for a tragedy so they can blame it on the President. They are the party of doom!
patty murray...little pipsqueak with big mouth with nothing to say. I’m amazed at how many things President Bush is capable of. Hurricanes, Bridge collapes...he’s quit the mighty mouse. murray should be ashamed. She and her ilk are so void of any kind of idea, solution, plan to ANYTHING that all they can do is wait for a tragedy so they can blame it on the President. They are the party of doom!
Excellent stuff from Neal Boortz!
I wonder if Murray took her marching orders from Howard Dean.
I'd compare her to a baby robin . . . all mouth and rear-end. But it would be an insult to the intelligence of our feathered friends.
By Patty's reasoning, that was Bill Clinton's fault.
Congress has the power of the purse. Pelosi and Reid could have fixed this earlier this year if they had wanted to. It’s their fault.
Wasn’t Patty Murray the one who lauded Osama bin Laden for building daycare centers???
By Patty's reasoning, that was Bill Clinton's fault.
Wrong!!! That was George Bush, too -- He was just practicing.
Everybody knows that no Dummycrap is ever responsible for anything.
Can't you get anything right????
I was reading a book recently about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge.
One of the more interesting factoids was that in the first half of the 19th century about one in four of the bridges built in the US fell down.
“Don’t you know that disasters only happen when Republicans are in power?”
That’s not True ! Sometimes disasters happen when Dems are in power, but the CAUSE was due to Republican failures in the past. This is why it is so critical that Dems invented the art of revisionist history and control the public education system.
/s off
I just watched a show on the History Channel or Discovery Channel about bridge disasters. And then a few days later, this one collapses in Minnesota. There was a guy on that show who said how many bridges in the U.S. needed fixing and then he said that when one fails, he won’t be surprised because he and his agency have been telling people for years. He was pretty disturbed by the fact that he had all of that information in his head, nobody was doing anything about it, and soon, people would be dead because a bridge was going to fail. And then it did.
Come on!!!! Everybody knows it’s Isaac Newtons fault.....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.